100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Mariah has joined Jay, Nicole and Max in their adventure to New Zealand and is from a town called Kamas in Utah – which is not too far from Park City, Utah. (one of our favourite places to visit in Utah especially the outlet stores!) Mariah has been here with the meyer family for over a year now and is shortly heading off to study at BYU Hawaii!**
It’s a great time to leave our shores for the sunny paradise of the pacific as it is the middle of winter right now. Although it’s not really that cold it’s just a little miserable being stuck in this damp, wet, windy and cold weather.
**Update: Since I wrote this post Mariah has been at BYU Hawaii for over 3 months now. Loving the life there I bet!
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Today’s portrait is of our friend, Nicole Meyer, who we have met through church. Nicole is Jay’s wife and they have moved to New Zealand (over a year ago) from North Carolina, USA after he and his wife completed their Medical degrees.
Nicole also works in the health sector as a Doctor at the Auckland City Hospital. Jay and Nicole have a son, Max who is 2 years old and have also brought Nicole’s niece Mariah with them on their adventure here in New Zealand.
Unfortunately when I took their photos it was late in the evening and the lighting was…. far less than desirable. However I am still relatively happy with how they’ve turned out.
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
So I have definitely been off the pace lately for a number of reasons, however to quote the words of my good friend Haydn, “No excuses – Just results.”
I didn’t end up following through with my 100 days project to the end as I lost control of my time-management and started focusing on our upcoming trip to the U.S.A and then all the time we actually spent there. So what I am doing now is finishing up with all those that I DID manage to take photos of so I can complete it and put it to rest until next year.
Day 08 belongs to a new friend Jay Meyer who I have met through church. Jay and his family moved to New Zealand from North Carolina, USA after he and his wife completed their Medical degrees.
Jay is an eye surgeon (Ophthamologist?) and works here in Auckland at the Greenlane Hospital as well as guest lecturing at Auckland University. Ophthalmologists are doctors who are trained in the treatment of diseases of the eye. Most will be trained in eye surgery and most nowadays have specialised interest in a particular part of the eye, for example, the cornea, the retina, the eye lids or muscles that control the eye movements.
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Today’s portrait is of one of my work colleagues – Elaine. She is also a designer here at Yellow and like myself is interested in all things designy. Some of her interests are art, magazines, graffiti, interior design and of course… clothes. Something interesting about Elaine is that she left school when she was only 15 years old!
We tried shooting outside around 4 to 4.30pm. Although the light was reasonable it probably wasn’t the best idea shooting at that time as the shadows were quite harsh. In retrospect, a reflector of some sort would have been really handy to knock back some of those harsh shadows. The background isn’t the greatest either so I’ll have to keep looking around work to see if I can find a better location. It’s all a good learning experience either way and I managed to get some good shots under the less-than-desirable conditions.
Another thing Elaine and I have in common is… Pinterest! I have to admit that when I first heard of Pinterest I didn’t want to join the network as it seemed it was ‘for girls’ (such a primary school boy attitude) and seemed to be swamped with a ton of pins that would generally appeal only to women. However, I did end up joining it due to it’s ability to provide some awesome inspiration and now I must confess I am a bit of a Pinterest fiend. Feel free to follow my Pinterest boards by clicking the Pinterest logo under the ‘Follow me Socially” header in the sidebar.
Oh one more thing we have in common is our love of the NZ artist, Shane Hansen’s work.
Check it out – You’ll love it too if you don’t already.
#100daysNZ #100dayer #Photography #Nikon #D600 #50mm #Design #Art #Pinterest #Pins #Needareflector #ShaneHansen
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Alrighty – So today’s lucky headshot individual is my little brother, Haroma.
As I mentioned yesterday, he and his wife have been staying with us the past couple of days while Tamara attended a course at Auckland Uni as a part of her post-grad teaching diploma.
Writing about an individual is difficult for me on any occasion, however today it’s not because of a lack of information but rather an over-abundance! Today I have to try and siphon out information that you don’t need (which is most of it) and only include the important.
Haroma is a Pisces who likes to read books by the fire and enjoys long walks on the beach.
Ok serious now – Haroma is a personal trainer in training. He is the youngest in our family of 9 children and as such has spent most of his life being told what to do by his parents and his 8 other older sibling/parents. After spending 2 years serving a mission in central region of the Philippines he is now a confident speaker of Cebuano, Ilonggo (Hiligaynon) and maybe another language? Haroma is a very kind-natured and fun-loving person – I’m pretty sure he loves laughing and you may have even heard his booming laugh at some point, perhaps while visiting a neighbouring city, as it is quite loud in comparison to his other siblings. Anyway he’s got some brownie points for letting me use him and his wife as models for my project so I guess I’ll let them come and stay again next time they’re up here. Enjoy your portraits bro – I expect to see them take pride of place in your social profiles and framed on the wall next time I come to visit.
#100daysNZ #100dayer #Photography #Nikon #D600 #50mm #Philippines #filipino #littlebro #potiki #PT #Fitness
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Yay! So I finally have my first willing female participant.
Meet Tamara my sister-in-law – Tamara and my brother have recently moved to Tauranga (our hometown) from Palmerston North. Tamara and my brother have been staying with us the past couple of days while she completes a short course here at Auckland Uni as a part of her Early Childhood Education degree. Thanks to the classic ‘pulling rank over younger siblings’ technique I convinced her and my brother to stand outside on the deck in the freezing 5pm breeze coming up through Hillsborough from the Manukau harbour.
Tamara is originally from Papua New Guinea and I actually met her older brother while he and I were serving a mission in Queensland, Australia a few years before she met my brother. I’m a fan of the one-sided fade that she’s rocking – I think it really suits her. It’s a pity I didn’t get more from that angle but I was trying to avoid the massive, stupid, power pylon that blocks our harbour views and every other Hillsborough/Mt Roskill resident.
Hopefully these portraits will pass the test and Tamara will be happy with them!
#100daysNZ #100dayer #Photography #Nikon #D600 #50mm #PNG #fade #fadez
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
So you could probably say I’m cheating a little since I took this photo on Day 3 however I still did the editing process on Day 4 and I’m posting it today which is actually Day 5!
Anyway, today’s portrait is Elder Brown, another missionary that is currently serving in our congregation. Again I don’t know his first name so like Elder Smiddy Smith I have again applied some alliteration and have nicknamed him Bobby. I took the photo at night under fluorescent lighting so the conditions were so different to what I am used to. A lot of the photos I took had a fuzzy green tinge across them (you may be able to notice it on some of the photos where I wasn’t able to completely remove it) so I am keen to figure out what causes that and how to avoid it as I am sure there will be many other instances where I’ll need to photograph under fluorescent light. Anyone out there have any ideas or know exactly what the issue is?
Bobby is from the south-side… of Utah hahaha, from a place called Cedar City close to St George, Utah and a pretty close to the awesome Mt Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon. My wife and I are heading there in August for work and hope to find some time to check out the awesome sights in those locations.
Again, for those who aren’t aware of what a missionary is or their purpose – they are young men and women who volunteer to give up 18 months – 2 years of their lives to preach, teach and serve, often in a community far different from the one in which they normally live. Having served for 2 years myself, the skills, abilities and experience I gained from forgetting myself and serving others was immeasurable and has continued to bless my life since completing my service.
Feel free to take a look at www.mormon.org or www.lds.org for more info if you feel so inclined.
#100daysNZ #100dayer #Photography #Nikon #D600 #50mm #whatsupwiththegreenfuzz #mormon #lds #missionary
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Every Sunday my family and I attend church, and so with my camera in tow I thought it would be an ideal place to find some willing participants for my project. What I have learned very quickly in the first few days of my project is that females are ‘less excited’ about participating and being photographed hahaha.
So today’s portrait is Elder Smith, a missionary that is currently serving in our congregation. I don’t actually know what his first name is so I have nicknamed him Smiddy although I am sure if I upload it onto Facebook their tagging feature could find that out for me. I took the photo at night under fluorescent lighting so the conditions were so different to what I am used to. A lot of the photos I took had a fuzzy green tinge across them (you may be able to notice it on one of the photos above) so I am keen to figure out what causes that and how to avoid it as I am sure there will be many other instances where I’ll need to photograph under fluorescent light. Anyone out there have any ideas or know exactly what the issue is?
Smiddy is from the western side of Canada somewhere around Calgary (I can’t remember the actual city) however he has unique ties to NZ as his father is originally from New Zealand and is of Maori descent.
You can definitely see the Maori features in his face and of course the cheeky, mischievous look in the eyes (especially in the photo with the green tinge at the bottom.
So for those who aren’t aware of what a missionary is or their purpose – they are young men and women who volunteer to give up 18 months – 2 years of their lives to preach, teach and serve, often in a community far different from the one in which they normally live. Having served for 2 years myself, the skills and abilities I gained from forgetting myself and serving others was immeasurable and has continued to bless my life since completing my service.
Feel free to take a look at www.mormon.org or www.lds.org for more info if you feel so inclined.
#100daysNZ #100dayer #Photography #Nikon #D600 #50mm #whatsupwiththegreenfuzz #mormon #lds #missionary
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Today’s cute and curious little subject is my nephew Daluwyn. He is 4 years old and a very bright boy, always asking questions and telling stories. Like most of us here in Auckland, he wasn’t to happy to wake up to the wet and windy weather and the thought of being stuck inside all day.
I managed to get some nice shots of him looking out the window at the rain. One thing I like about photographing kids is that they aren’t so self-conscious about what they look like. I think this helps them to look natural and helps the photographer capture a better portrait of the individual.
His mother asked him to put his clothes on to get ready to go and I noticed he had put his knitted hoodie on backwards. When I pointed it out to him he said he doesn’t need to change it because he can still see out of the hoodie when it’s covering his face. He then proved it by pointing out all the things the could see. Hilarious!
100 Days Project 2014, Photography
Dom is a work colleague who graciously volunteered to help me with my project today as I wasn’t very prepared other than having my camera. I think this project will allow me to get out of my comfort zone and become more comfortable with talking to people I’ve not met before.
Like myself, Dom is quite reserved but is always willing to have a chat or join into a conversation with the group. I’m glad I was able to pull a good smile out of him.
#Photography #Portrait #100dayer #100daysNZ
